The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Pirate Planet
The Pirate Planet: Part One (30/09/18)
Well, this one started off with a truly terrible model shot followed by some incompetent camera work in the opening scene with the Captain and Mr Fibuli, but it's turned out to be a very entertaining if slightly confusing episode.
The next segment of the Key To Time is on the planet Calufrax, but when the TARDIS tries to land it can't. Then Romana has a go and succeeds, but the planet they're on isn't Calufrax even though it's exactly the right point in time and space!
Elsewhere on the planet, a guy called Pralix is having some sort of psychic reaction (as he's apparently a telepath) and his grandfather is going spare worrying that the neighbours will report it to the Captain's guard, and his sister Mula just wants to know why it's happening. 'Why', apparently, is a forbidden question, and Romana's been arrested for asking it.
The Doctor has tracked down Pralix, but so have the Mentiads - weird zombie-like people dressed in yellow who have come to 'harvest' Pralix after a Vigil of Evil. Mula's grandfather would rather kill Pralix than allow him to be taken by the Mentiads, and Mula and Pralix's dad was shot by the Captain's guards to save him from them!
It's an interesting set up with a hell of a lot more going on in episode one than the last story! It's got some fantastic dialogue and some nicely composed scenes - the Doctor failing to get any information from the locals time after time followed by Romana immediately getting one to talk, and her statement that she got the bag of Jellybabies from the same place as the Doctor: "Your pocket", was brilliant! She's still a bit snooty, but I'm starting to warm to Romana.
K9 got a fair bit to do as well, shooting guards and heading off to tell the Doctor Romana had been arrested. It's just a shame it's so poorly directed. Scenes in wide, open courtyards had a handful of extras bunched together making it look cheap, and their reactions were dire. It all just feels like the Director doesn't understand the script and what could be funny scenes with shining dialogue just come across like an Am Dram production, which is very odd since this is the same person who directed 'The Face Of Evil' and 'The Sun Makers'! Here's hoping it improves!
The Pirate Planet: Part Two (07/10/18)
A much better episode this week, explaining much of the confused storytelling of the last episode. Mula is a good, strong character, although we didn't get to see much of her after she decided to head off on her own to rescue her brother from the Mentiads when the Doctor chose to rescue Romana first. He sent K9 after her, then stole an Air Car from one of the Captain's guards (basically an adapted speedboat) and went to the Bridge with Kimus.
Leaving Kimus outside to guard the Air Car, the Doctor soon teamed up with Romana again and was set to work on fixing the Captain's engines. Claiming they needed stuff from the TARDIS, they left the bridge and Kimus shot their escort. Then they went to The Mines and found out that the Captain's engines power a massive dematerialisation circuit which he uses to materialise his own 'pirate planet' around other planets and plunder their mineral wealth!
It's a clever idea and everything seemed a lot clearer this week. There were also a number of very witty one-liners and a few really nice locations such as the wooded hillside entrance to the Bridge, the moorlands Mula and K9 crossed, the Mine workings (all abandoned and dilapidated) and the caves which represented the hollow interior of Zanak and the surface of Calufrax.
Romana is growing on me - she had some nice scenes with the psychotic Captain, his nurse and whimpering aide Mr Fibuli, and some very good scenes with Tom in the stunningly spacious interior of some sort of power station used as the location for Zanak's engines. This is already a huge improvement on the last story with stronger characters and better writing. I think the location work has helped, too, giving this alien planet more scope than the studio-bound opening serial. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, with Mula and K9 having found the Mentiads' lair, and the the Doctor, Romana and Kimus trapped between the Mentiads and the Captain's guards. I'm also hoping to see a stand-off between K9 and the Captain's lethal robot Parrot - it's got to happen at some point; you couldn't introduce the thing and not have the two battle it out!
The Pirate Planet: Part Three (14/10/18)
Once again we have a very entertaining and interesting Part Three! Lots of stuff going on and lots more explained about the storyline. Plus Tom did some of the best acting he's done in ages! Recently, his performance has been fairly one-note and uninspiring. I actually started the episode thinking perhaps it's time he stepped down and gave another actor a go at being the Doctor. He has been on the show almost as long as Jon Pertwee now, and I've never thought he was as good. But then we got the scene between the Doctor and the Captain. Finally some passion and expression - captured with Kimus and waking up shackled after seemingly being tortured, he had some excellent dialogue questioning the Captain about his plans and getting the Captain to unchain him. The Captain then showed him his trophy room where he's using advanced technology to safely keep the super-compressed remains of the planets he's plundered on display. Tom was brilliant, expressing the Doctor's outrage perfectly!
They then returned to the Bridge where the Captain allowed the Doctor to unchain Kimus who, seeing the 'abomination' of the Captain for the first time, went to kill him. The Captain set his robot parrot to kill them, at which point K9 arrived to fight it out! About time! K9 won, obviously.
Earlier in the episode we learnt that the Mentiads are good guys, telepaths whose psychic abilities have been increased by the release of energy each time Zanak has materialised around a planet and plundered it, releasing its energies. As a gestalt, the Mentiads have the ability to defeat the Captain, but the Captain is one step ahead and has made a machine to suppress their psychic ability.
Romana and Mula spent the second half of the episode leading the Mentiads (led by Pralix) to the slopes outside the Bridge, and the Captain got some decent backstory which hinted that he may not be the one in control. This was backed up when the Doctor and Kimus stumbled across Zanak's one-time ruler, Queen Xanxia, aged and held by Time Dams in her last moment of life.
Then we ended with a very 'how the hell will he get out of this one' cliffhanger when the Captain made the Doctor walk the plank and fall thousands of feet to his death! Certainly the best episode this series. Let's hope the upward swing in quality continues!
The Pirate Planet: Part Four (21/10/18)
That was a pretty good story, although I'm not convinced I understood everything this week. The Doctor got out of the cliffhanger because he used some form of projector to create a solid recreation of himself to take the jump. It seems Queen Xanxia was using the device to project a younger version of herself from inside the Time Dams and, once fully corporealised, she would live forever. The younger version was actually the Nurse! Her theory was flawed, though.
Anyway, Romana shot a guard, K9 helped nullify the field blocking the Mentiads, the Doctor and Romana went off in the TARDIS to do something very clever to stop Zanak materialising round the Earth, and Mr Fibuli was killed in an explosion caused by the Mentiads throwing a spanner in the works. Literally. They blew up the planet's engines with a spanner. Then Xanxia killed the Captain who had planned to kill Xanxia with something clever and Kimus then shot Xanxia, the Doctor wired explosives to the Bridge and let the Mentiads blow it sky high, then he and Romana sauntered off to collect the remains of Calufrax from the Space/Time Vortex where it had been thrown (apparently) because the whole planet was the second segment of the Key To Time. Apparently it was all very clever and sciencey. Maybe if I were clever and Sciencey I'd've understood it! Still, better than the first story.
The Captain was an interesting character who it's a shame we didn't learn more about - very clever, it seems, and all the shouting and bluster was a act - backed up by his mourning of Mr Fibuli. Xanxia was a great idea, but ultimately she didn't feel very threatening. The Captain's death was a little underwhelming, too, but mostly because everything was underplayed. Granted, he was going to kill Xanxia so she blew him up with her control device, but perhaps if it had been directed with a bit more focus it would have had more impact. Well, onward and upward!
Well, this one started off with a truly terrible model shot followed by some incompetent camera work in the opening scene with the Captain and Mr Fibuli, but it's turned out to be a very entertaining if slightly confusing episode.
The next segment of the Key To Time is on the planet Calufrax, but when the TARDIS tries to land it can't. Then Romana has a go and succeeds, but the planet they're on isn't Calufrax even though it's exactly the right point in time and space!
Elsewhere on the planet, a guy called Pralix is having some sort of psychic reaction (as he's apparently a telepath) and his grandfather is going spare worrying that the neighbours will report it to the Captain's guard, and his sister Mula just wants to know why it's happening. 'Why', apparently, is a forbidden question, and Romana's been arrested for asking it.
The Doctor has tracked down Pralix, but so have the Mentiads - weird zombie-like people dressed in yellow who have come to 'harvest' Pralix after a Vigil of Evil. Mula's grandfather would rather kill Pralix than allow him to be taken by the Mentiads, and Mula and Pralix's dad was shot by the Captain's guards to save him from them!
It's an interesting set up with a hell of a lot more going on in episode one than the last story! It's got some fantastic dialogue and some nicely composed scenes - the Doctor failing to get any information from the locals time after time followed by Romana immediately getting one to talk, and her statement that she got the bag of Jellybabies from the same place as the Doctor: "Your pocket", was brilliant! She's still a bit snooty, but I'm starting to warm to Romana.
K9 got a fair bit to do as well, shooting guards and heading off to tell the Doctor Romana had been arrested. It's just a shame it's so poorly directed. Scenes in wide, open courtyards had a handful of extras bunched together making it look cheap, and their reactions were dire. It all just feels like the Director doesn't understand the script and what could be funny scenes with shining dialogue just come across like an Am Dram production, which is very odd since this is the same person who directed 'The Face Of Evil' and 'The Sun Makers'! Here's hoping it improves!
The Pirate Planet: Part Two (07/10/18)
A much better episode this week, explaining much of the confused storytelling of the last episode. Mula is a good, strong character, although we didn't get to see much of her after she decided to head off on her own to rescue her brother from the Mentiads when the Doctor chose to rescue Romana first. He sent K9 after her, then stole an Air Car from one of the Captain's guards (basically an adapted speedboat) and went to the Bridge with Kimus.
Leaving Kimus outside to guard the Air Car, the Doctor soon teamed up with Romana again and was set to work on fixing the Captain's engines. Claiming they needed stuff from the TARDIS, they left the bridge and Kimus shot their escort. Then they went to The Mines and found out that the Captain's engines power a massive dematerialisation circuit which he uses to materialise his own 'pirate planet' around other planets and plunder their mineral wealth!
It's a clever idea and everything seemed a lot clearer this week. There were also a number of very witty one-liners and a few really nice locations such as the wooded hillside entrance to the Bridge, the moorlands Mula and K9 crossed, the Mine workings (all abandoned and dilapidated) and the caves which represented the hollow interior of Zanak and the surface of Calufrax.
Romana is growing on me - she had some nice scenes with the psychotic Captain, his nurse and whimpering aide Mr Fibuli, and some very good scenes with Tom in the stunningly spacious interior of some sort of power station used as the location for Zanak's engines. This is already a huge improvement on the last story with stronger characters and better writing. I think the location work has helped, too, giving this alien planet more scope than the studio-bound opening serial. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, with Mula and K9 having found the Mentiads' lair, and the the Doctor, Romana and Kimus trapped between the Mentiads and the Captain's guards. I'm also hoping to see a stand-off between K9 and the Captain's lethal robot Parrot - it's got to happen at some point; you couldn't introduce the thing and not have the two battle it out!
The Pirate Planet: Part Three (14/10/18)
Once again we have a very entertaining and interesting Part Three! Lots of stuff going on and lots more explained about the storyline. Plus Tom did some of the best acting he's done in ages! Recently, his performance has been fairly one-note and uninspiring. I actually started the episode thinking perhaps it's time he stepped down and gave another actor a go at being the Doctor. He has been on the show almost as long as Jon Pertwee now, and I've never thought he was as good. But then we got the scene between the Doctor and the Captain. Finally some passion and expression - captured with Kimus and waking up shackled after seemingly being tortured, he had some excellent dialogue questioning the Captain about his plans and getting the Captain to unchain him. The Captain then showed him his trophy room where he's using advanced technology to safely keep the super-compressed remains of the planets he's plundered on display. Tom was brilliant, expressing the Doctor's outrage perfectly!
They then returned to the Bridge where the Captain allowed the Doctor to unchain Kimus who, seeing the 'abomination' of the Captain for the first time, went to kill him. The Captain set his robot parrot to kill them, at which point K9 arrived to fight it out! About time! K9 won, obviously.
Earlier in the episode we learnt that the Mentiads are good guys, telepaths whose psychic abilities have been increased by the release of energy each time Zanak has materialised around a planet and plundered it, releasing its energies. As a gestalt, the Mentiads have the ability to defeat the Captain, but the Captain is one step ahead and has made a machine to suppress their psychic ability.
Romana and Mula spent the second half of the episode leading the Mentiads (led by Pralix) to the slopes outside the Bridge, and the Captain got some decent backstory which hinted that he may not be the one in control. This was backed up when the Doctor and Kimus stumbled across Zanak's one-time ruler, Queen Xanxia, aged and held by Time Dams in her last moment of life.
Then we ended with a very 'how the hell will he get out of this one' cliffhanger when the Captain made the Doctor walk the plank and fall thousands of feet to his death! Certainly the best episode this series. Let's hope the upward swing in quality continues!
The Pirate Planet: Part Four (21/10/18)
That was a pretty good story, although I'm not convinced I understood everything this week. The Doctor got out of the cliffhanger because he used some form of projector to create a solid recreation of himself to take the jump. It seems Queen Xanxia was using the device to project a younger version of herself from inside the Time Dams and, once fully corporealised, she would live forever. The younger version was actually the Nurse! Her theory was flawed, though.
Anyway, Romana shot a guard, K9 helped nullify the field blocking the Mentiads, the Doctor and Romana went off in the TARDIS to do something very clever to stop Zanak materialising round the Earth, and Mr Fibuli was killed in an explosion caused by the Mentiads throwing a spanner in the works. Literally. They blew up the planet's engines with a spanner. Then Xanxia killed the Captain who had planned to kill Xanxia with something clever and Kimus then shot Xanxia, the Doctor wired explosives to the Bridge and let the Mentiads blow it sky high, then he and Romana sauntered off to collect the remains of Calufrax from the Space/Time Vortex where it had been thrown (apparently) because the whole planet was the second segment of the Key To Time. Apparently it was all very clever and sciencey. Maybe if I were clever and Sciencey I'd've understood it! Still, better than the first story.
The Captain was an interesting character who it's a shame we didn't learn more about - very clever, it seems, and all the shouting and bluster was a act - backed up by his mourning of Mr Fibuli. Xanxia was a great idea, but ultimately she didn't feel very threatening. The Captain's death was a little underwhelming, too, but mostly because everything was underplayed. Granted, he was going to kill Xanxia so she blew him up with her control device, but perhaps if it had been directed with a bit more focus it would have had more impact. Well, onward and upward!
I mostly agree about this - a witty story with good dialogue and lots of great ideas, but the direction is indeed unexciting, some of the performances suffer as a result and in parts the thing just looks (again) dull and/or cheap. Rightly, the showdown between the Doctor and the Captain is a highlight not only of Tom Baker's time in this story or this season, but of his time in the show as a whole. Mary Tamm is far more assured here than in her debut, and it's clear she and Tom Baker are getting along famously.
ReplyDeleteThe Pirate Planet is a story which I really want to love, but it just isn't quite as wonderful as everyone makes out it is. I think it worked much better as a book, but then the book has better visuals. It's certainly not a bad story, and definitely a step up from '...Ribos...', but it doesn't quite fulfil its potential. Mary Tamm has certainly settled into her character by this point and has great chemistry with Tom. Whilst I immediately warmed to Leela and never warmed to Sarah, Romana grew on me over her first season, which was clearly the intention of Graham Williams when he introduced the character. It's perhaps an approach that JNT and Moffat should have looked at when they introduced the 6th and 12th Doctors instead of making them pretty unlikable throughout their first series. Of course, all that's a very long way off!
DeleteShall we have another bitch session about Eric Saward? :D The Twin Dilemma was and would have been a misstep any which way they framed it, but at least if they'd opened Season Twenty-Two they way they did Season Twenty-Three and made the new Doctor only occasionally prickly while showing that he and Peri enjoyed an actual friendship, things might have gone very differently. And to be honest, I've no more time for Moffat's approach to the 12th Doctor, since as I've said many times before I found the whole mid-life crisis "Am I a good man?" bollocks an utterly wasteful approach to the character, especially when paired with a companion as egocentric in her own right as Clara.
DeleteAgain, you've pretty much summed the situations up. The opening episodes of 'Trial...', as previously stated, are my favourite Colin episodes largely because the Doctor is written as he should have been throughout the previous season. And as much as I love Capaldi as the Doctor, Moffat really did mess up his era by lumbering him with the whole 'grumpy Doctor' crap and a terrible companion. If only it had all been like Series 10!
Delete